Entries about mix

The annual box of citrus fruit from Florida is always a happy package to receive. It is the launch of juice related cocktails and the search is for those which contain orange and grapefruit juice. This year, delivery from the Sunshine State coincided with a Costco run that brought home bags of lemons and limes. Faced with the challenge of which juice to employ during the cocktail hour, I pulled out the juicer and ice cube trays.

Sunshine on a Stick

When the Sunshine on a Stick PSA was aired in the 1970’s the hope was to increase fruit consumption, but the idea works well for extending the life of fresh squeezed juice. We now have lemon, lime, orange and grapefruit juice at our fingertips (in a chilling form) in one ounce cubes. Homemade sour mix is available on demand by tossing the cubes into a blender, adding some simple syrup and pressing go.

SIMPLE SYRUP

1 part sugar
1 part water

(if you prefer a richer syrup you can use 2 parts sugar to one part water, but add less syrup to your cocktails)

1 Combine sugar and water in a pan and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally
2 Once sugar is completely dissolved, remove pan from heat
3 Allow syrup to cool
4 Bottle
5 Refrigerate

SOUR MIX

I use the following ratio for my margarita sour mix, but it is a fun mixer to experiment with and revise depending on the cocktail

2 parts lemon
1 parts lime
1 part orange
2 parts simple syrup

1 Mix or blend
2 Adjust taste to suit your preference